As Wild Chalklings threaten the American Isles and Rithmatists are humanity's only defense, Joel can only watch as Rithmatist students learn the magical art that he would do anything to practice.
When a hero is needed to save the doomed kingdom of Mokia from the evil Librarians, thirteen-year-old Alcatraz Smedry, whose family talents include getting lost and breaking things, answers the call.
Alcatraz Smedry and his companions seek Al's father and grandfather in the Great Library of Alexandria, where they face undead wraiths called the Curators of Alexandria, and one of the Scrivener's Bones, a part-human, part-machine mercenary.